New May 4th Movement set for Sunday: New Party

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) yesterday announced that a new May 4th Movement will be held to make demands for democracy and the rule of law in Taiwan.

Yok said that the new May 4th Movement will take place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Ketagalan Boulevard and that police responsibilities will be kept to a minimum.

“I sincerely welcome all Kuomintang (KMT) members to join this movement so they can listen to the voices of people who support the government in carrying out its executive right based on laws,” said Yok.

According to Yok, this is not a populist movement. The goal of the new May 4th Movement, Yok said, is to guard the constitutional system and support the government since democracy is based on the rule of law.

“We would also like to support the police because they carry out laws and protect people who follow the laws,” said Yok. “No matter what your opinions are on the nuclear power issue or the Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement, we can only continue to discuss those issues if the Republic of China exists.

“The protests and street movements nowadays only aim to overthrow the government and found the Republic of Taiwan, which would make it impossible to discuss any national policies.”

He continued that by launching this new May 4th Movement, he wanted to let Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), the Sunflower Student Movement representatives, to understand the foundation of a movement.

“You have to be able to control the crowd,” said Yok. “And you cannot trick people into taking to the street with unclear messages.”

Associate professor Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭) of the Central Police University said that police officers do not take the side of any political parties.

They believe in their country and the laws, Yeh said, but the laws are not respected as they should be nowadays.

On May 4, 1919, an anti-imperialist, cultural and political movement, growing out of student demonstrations, took place in Beijing. It is commonly known as the May 4th Movement. Students protested against the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially for allowing Japan to take territories in Shandong that had been surrendered by Germany after the Siege of Tsingtao.

KMT Youth to Show Support for Police

The KMT Youth League will launch a demonstration this Sunday morning to show support for police who have been maintaining the order of society based on the law.

According to the league, they will start off from the Taipei Railway Station and walk to the National Police Agency.

Tseng Wen-pei of the KMT Youth League said that recently many people have been questioning why only anti-government voices are being heard.

“We decided to step out and arrange a peaceful and rational demonstration to let other protesters know that occupying a place does not make your appeals more acceptable,” said Tseng.